Welcome to RetroMarques Ltd Website...

RetroMarques offers a range of services to support you, the classic car owner - or potential owner! As owner-enthusiasts ourselves, we hope to provide good advice on most aspects of classic car ownership. Routine servicing, repairs and upgrades are carried out in our Strensham workshop where we serve a number of owners who entrust their pride and joy to our classic car servicing and classic car repairs services. Also located at Strensham is our rebuild and restoration workshop and here we will have 2 or 3 cars undergoing a range of restoration tasks right up to a full nut-and-bolt rebuild to ‘as-new’ standard.

The restoration service goes hand-in-hand with our bodywork and paintshop services provided in our facility nearby in Malvern – Tony Williams Bodyshop. With body and paintwork, mechanical and rebuild services all in-house and working closely with trusted specialists close-by, there is little that we cannot tackle in-house and pride ourselves in providing a one-stop shop for your classic car needs.

Secure storage is also available at Strensham should a lay-up be required and valuation, market advice and classic car sales are also catered for, with sales available both on a commission basis and outright purchase.
The team of specialist at RetroMarques want to offer the majority of services you may require for the ‘through life’ care of your pride and joy: an end-to-end classic car care solution and, importantly, a traditional, trusted service – at a fair price.

Customer Comment: ‘Just got back home. Great drive - she now goes and sounds like an Alfa should. Complete transformation. Thanks for all your excellent work and advice! Kind regards, Stuart M - (March 2018)

About Us...

Established by Mark Knight and Rob Mears nearly 10 years ago, RetroMarques has always been a company owned and operated by enthusiastic classic car owners. Mark owns a small collection of classics which span the 50s, 70s and 80s. We’ll gloss over the ‘every day classic driver’ 1984 Peugeot 205 to the Alfa Romeo Coupe, Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 ‘Cosworth’ and Austin Healey 100/4. Mark is an Austin Healey Club committee member and actively supports the other clubs too. Staff members also own a range of classics, from pre-war Rover Sports to Buick saloon!

First and foremost, we are classic car enthusiasts and strong advocates and trade supporters of the FBHVC (link). RetroMarques was founded in the belief that we should provide a combination of friendly, high-quality service and yet also provide value for money. We believe you want traditional values and to establish a trusted relationship – both seemingly lost in many areas of business today. We want you to feel that your car is with people who both care and are capable. Our specialists have accrued many years of experience and expertise and with over 100 years of experience in the bodyshop, we feel we offer a good depth and breadth of expertise. Rest assured we would rather say ‘No’ to a request for work and put you in touch with someone we believe can better help, than offer a sub-optimal service.

RetroMarques offers a range of services: from advising on ownership and sourcing a classic car, to storage; maintenance; repairs and improvements; and vehicle purchasing and sales. You may choose to use each service separately or all of them, over time, as a ‘through life’ classic car care sequence of services. Our aim is to provide you with an end-to-end classic car care solution.

We believe in working with and supporting small, local specialists and trade suppliers and have a well-established network of people we work with. Chroming, carburettor rebuilding, gearbox and overdrive overhauls, blasting and powder-coating, instrument refurbishment, brake cylinder and servo rebuilding, trim and upholstery and machine-shop specialists are all on hand. Since February 2013 we have our own specialist body and paintwork facility – Tony Williams Bodyshop close by in Malvern, so this means that all aspects of bodywork repairs, paintwork – from a small scratch to a full bare-metal respray – and anti-corrosion protection, can all be carried out by us, often in concert with mechanical work in the workshop or of course where a full restoration may be required.

Finally, we aim to act as a source of good advice: call or email us no matter whether for tyres or touring! Mark runs an email distribution list which keeps local classic car owners up to date with charity and other classic car events. Just drop him an email and you’ll get the updates!

Sale Services...

RetroMarques is pleased to offer a classic car sales service. We both source cars for our own sales, so we are always interested in purchasing classic cars and also offer a brokerage service for clients where a car is sold on a sale or return or commission basis. We will offer our best advice on market values, options to increase the value of a car prior to sale and if a client chooses to proceed to sale, the preparation, photography and all advertising of the car. Cars have been sold not only across the UK but into Europe and further afield e.g. to Australia!

‘Tony just delivered the AH 100M. All went fine and the car is a little jewel, just as you described. Thank you very much for the fine way to do business'. Bernard (Belgium).

Customer Comment: 'The MGA was fantastic to drive back… I think it definitely exceeds my expectations... Thanks very much for your assistance and I look forward to seeing you again. Alan'

Cars in Preparation for Sale...

Please check back - more stock coming soon

Customer Comment: ‘In the world of aged Italian cars, dealing with RetroMarques, from the very first encounter, through the full restoration to the sale has been a unique experience'. John

Previously Sold...

Here is a selection of the cars we have sourced and sold, we are actively seeking similar cars to purchase outright or to sell on your behalf.

Customer Comment: 'RetroMarques offered a one-stop service for selling my classic car. They collected, tidied, serviced and sold the car within 3 weeks of picking it up. Highly recommended'. Tim, Chipping Norton.

Maintenance...

RetroMarques has a fully equipped workshop at the Strensham site; we take pride in caring for your (and our) motoring heritage, no matter whether an Austin or an Aston! Routine maintenance is carried out for many makes of classic car, typically annual service or incremental servicing and often carried out along with a ‘classic-friendly’ MoT test, where one is required. Notwithstanding the 2018 MoT exemption change, we strongly recommend the independent check that an MoT test brings for peace of mind.

Jason and Mike, our 2 highly experienced technicians, will also have an eye to anything that may need attending to in the future – either because the old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ applies or because it may be more cost-effective to carry out the repair or replacement of an item during the service rather than leaving it for another day. We will always call an owner to discuss anything unexpectedly found and we take pride in offering good advice and options for rectifying a fault.

Given the car will most likely have been checked over whilst on the ramp, we will also have an eye to any bodywork or chassis deterioration and also whether we would advise that anti-corrosion protection is renewed or applied. We have invested in the equipment to carry out tyre removal and fitting and to balance spoked wheels, an operation not typically able to be carried out by many ‘high street’ tyre bays.

Finally, we appreciate that you want your classic car to be in good hands – with people who genuinely care. We welcome visits to look around the workshop and to discuss your own car and the work that may need to be done. You may wish to see the body and paintshop as well and planning a visit to both locations is easily arranged.

Repairs...

We are pleased to offer owners the capability to conduct the majority of repairs that you may need to have carried out and also a wide variety of upgrades that you may choose to consider having done to the car – for example, brake and suspension upgrades or simply fitting a Kenlowe fan for improved cooling.

Your classic may need repairs to be carried out following an MoT test failure or it may simply have deteriorated whilst in storage or during a period of inactivity. We can recover the car to the workshop, investigate what is needed and recommend rectification. Wherever possible, we try to offer a number of different options and prices, for example, to repair the original item or replace it with a new after-market version.

More major work can also be carried out. We frequently rebuild engines and service ancillary equipment, remove and repair gearboxes and overdrives and suspension components and the various drivetrain items such as drive shafts and the rear differential. In many such cases we will work with a local network of specialists to effect a repair or service for a major item.

Bodywork repairs can also be carried out, so no matter whether you want the removal of an annoying dent or a more serious repair such as sill replacement, the bodyshop has the skill and expertise to carry these tasks out. We can also cater for insurance repairs after an accident and will handle all of the estimating and invoicing with the insurer.

Sourcing...

When considering the ownership of a classic car, maybe for the very first time, good advice is of great value. Many buyers worry about either 'buying with the heart and not the head', or the potential risk in buying a classic car without any specialist knowledge, either generally or in a particular model.

Whether at the early stage of considering that you might like to own a classic car or having already decided on a particular marque or model, we can offer you sound advice – advice based on our own ownership and extensive driving experience, touring many thousands of miles in our own cars over the years, but importantly also founded on an in-depth knowledge of prices and value trends.

Let's face it, spending a few hundreds of pounds up-front in sourcing and purchasing the right car is a lot more cost-effective than buying a car which turns out to need several thousands of pounds in rectification!

So, typically, this is how we would proceed:

Discuss aspects of ownership of particular models and marques, then, understanding your budget and preferences, begin to source the right car.

Refine the search to one or two cars that fit your requirements then carry out a comprehensive inspection and report to you.

If instructed, negotiate the purchase on your behalf and on completion, recover the car to the workshop where any work required (or desired) to be completed can then be carried out prior to collection or delivery to you.

Please contact us to discuss sourcing your ‘dream classic’ - we’ll offer you the best advice we can!

Customer Comment from David: ‘Just a short note to let you know that the Porsche arrived in Australia on Friday. Thanks again for all your help in this project’

Storage...

RetroMarques is able to offer short and long-term car storage, so no matter whether you are moving abroad to work, have lost your existing storage facility or just don’t have the garage space at home, we can help. We offer long and short-term secure storage of cars offering the flexibility of routine access to your car so that it can continue to be used should you wish to do so.
We are ideally placed:

With easy access just off the M5 and M50 motorways, just a few minutes from the Cotswolds and the Malvern Hills!

Mid-way between the Prescott and Shelsley Walsh hill climbs

With a high degree of security: the 2 facilities are located within a gated, overnight-secured and manned site.

Well-ventilated units which do not ‘sweat’ and which are ‘cool’ in summer and ‘warm’ in winter, thus offering near-ideal storage conditions.

Long and short-term secure storage of vehicles offering the flexibility of routine access to your car so that it can be used!

It goes without saying that with co-located maintenance and repair facilities, your classic car can be serviced or repaired whilst it is with us. As part of the storage service, we can offer:

SORN, taxation and annual MoTs; especially useful if you’re not resident in the UK.

Import services, including collection from the port of arrival, roadworthiness checking and an initial MoT test, production dating letter sourcing and then registering with the DVLA for a V5C (registration document). FIVA ID cards and HTP Passports can also be taken care of.

Restoration...

Since taking over the bodyshop in 2013, our mix of body, paint and mechanical skills make us ideally suited to offer restoration and rebuild services as we can effectively offer a ‘one-stop shop’ for a wide variety of restoration or rebuild jobs.

We have a dedicated ‘clean workshop’ where there will typically be 2 or 3 projects in work at various stages of a restoration and most likely another 2-3 elsewhere in the business, perhaps still going through the bodyshop or in storage awaiting commencement.

Every restoration or rebuild job is different and brings its own challenges! Recent projects include the completion of 2x part-restored Healey 3000s, the first was a restoration that had been started some years ago and then deteriorated, so an assessment of condition was carried out first and in agreement with the owner we effectively started again. The 2nd Big Healey was bought in for a customer seeking a late-model Healey 3000 and was a part-completed restoration. With much of the mechanical work completed we fitted the panels, painted them, refitted them and then finish the interior and boot trim before shakedown running and handover to the customer; a very cost-effective way to buy into Healey 3000 ownership!

A long-term customer of ours has a period working abroad and so their WWII Jeep came to us for a full nut-and-bolt restoration. Much discussion ensured as the body tub was in very poor condition but wishing to preserve some originality and patina, we rebuilt the original tub, jig-straightened the chassis and rebuilt her with all mechanicals fully stripped and rebuilt; the family should have her for many years to come! More of a straightforward rebuild, an early boat-tail Alfa Romeo Spider was shipped in from Australia, already in paint and back on its wheels, for us to build back up to near-concours standard.

Project managing the restoration and working closely with local and marque specialists we are able to offer a quality but cost-conscious service – no £250k rebuilds here!

Customer Comment: ‘Thank you and the team at Retromarques for all the work that you carried out on my Range Rover, and for all your hard work, skill of hand, attention to detail and care. I had a great drive back to Bristol yesterday and the car felt and looked great' – Chris